Step One

I had this fantasy that I'd get up this morning and in a couple hours I'd have the garden all cleared and ready to have new landscape fabric laid down so I could get some straw bales this weekend and get them started composting so I can plant in a couple weeks.  Well.  I was a good girl and did my yoga first, then had breakfast and did the Jumble and worked on yesterday's Sudoku (I needed a little hint; it was a 3-star puzzle and I'm new at this), got dressed, gathered my tools, and out I went.  It was a lot more strenuous (a LOT) than I thought to strip off the old landscape fabric since weeds had grown up through it to anchor it in spots plus all that bending over made my back ache.  So I decided to take it in steps.  Here's where it started (the blueberries are across the front closest to the camera) and below it is Step One after an hour's work (it seemed like two or three hours to my out-of-shape self).  I also used the lopping shears to cut down a couple volunteer trees growing behind the rental side, trim the forsythia a bit, tidy up the top of the retaining wall, and drag all the sticks to the street.


I took a little break on the patio once I was done and a cardinal came to the feeder and left immediately when he realized I was there but he flew up into the tree behind the house and spent a few minutes singing his "cheer, cheer" song.  Then I watched a hawk being chased by a biggish black bird, a starling or a small crow.  It's funny how the hawks let themselves be driven off instead of turning around and nabbing the bird.



The apple tree has tight little pink knobs of buds getting ready to burst into bloom.  Funny how they're so pink now and will be white when they open.

May 5--Woman Testing Telephones Before Dispatch to the General Post Office Stores.  The jangle and whir of the room full of telephones was enough to drive DeeAnn crazy.  She had been so excited when they told her she would have her own office but it had been barely an hour and she was ready to beg to go back to the typing pool.  There were nineteen black phones on shelves around the small room.  Each one had its own distinctive ring.  Some had bells, others made a kind of clacking, and still others made a low whir like an angry squirrel.  The phones were numbered and she was supposed to record which ones rang, how often, and who called.  She supposed she should be glad that there was just one notebook, that each one didn't have its own notebook.  She spent her second hour in the room looking for a hidden camera.

Hey, happy Cinco de Mayo!  My friend AT and I were going to go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch today but fortunately I realized the date so we're going to a diner, the Blackstone, instead.  Whew.  Gotta shower, I'm all sweaty and dirt-y.  Bye.
--Barbara